Traditional pre-recorded media content (e.g., film, TV, recorded music, e-books) is optimized as broadcast content (i.e., content formatted for mass delivery and disseminated to a broad audience, traditionally from a single sender to multiple recipients). As such, all users of broadcast content (e.g., viewers of a movie, listeners of a song, readers of a book, or other recipients or consumers of content) are seeing, hearing or otherwise experiencing the exact same content as other users of the content.
Two examples of this broadcast content are television and radio content. Television and radio content (e.g., TV shows, movies, recorded music) are fixed (i.e., unchanged) files or embodiments of the content that are traditionally delivered (i.e., broadcast) by electromagnetic transmissions (e.g., over radio waves, through satellite signals, via coaxial or optical cable) that represent the transmission of pre-recorded video or audio content where all users that have a television or radio will be able to receive, decode and consume the content. Because the same broadcast content may be delivered at different times to different large communities of users (e.g., a TV show that is shown at 8:00 PM EST in the Eastern Time Zone and at 8:00 PM PST in the Pacific Time Zone), the broadcast medium (i.e., the collective system of transmission relays that deliver the content from its source to the destination) does not strictly require that the show be seen at the same time by all users, but rather that when the content is seen or heard by users, the content is the same for all users.
A third example of broadcast content is pre-recorded content (again, a fixed file or embodiment of the content) that, instead of being delivered via radio waves, is delivered in the form of manufactured physical product. Pre-recorded content (e.g., a TV series, movie, e-book, music) is content that is encoded into a digital format, saved on a digital medium (e.g., DVD, CD, Blu-Ray disk, tape cassette) and copied via a mass-manufacturing process, with each such physical copy being distributed to users via a physical distribution process (e.g., sold in stores, online). Each user who purchases the physical copy may consume the content using their individual playback device. Again, because the content is generally consumed by these users at any time, the distinctive aspect of the broadcast content is that it is being produced in a way that all users see or hear the same content regardless of when it is viewed or listened to.
Recent technologies (e.g., Internet delivery, on-demand cable television, Digital Video Recorders) provide users with a fourth example of broadcast content—namely, the ability to “time shift” received content so that traditional broadcast content (i.e., a fixed file or embodiment of the content) can be delivered anytime the customer wants to consume it. This “time shifting” allows content users to change the time at which the content is delivered or consumed. However, the nature of the content reflects its broadcast roots (i.e., the content delivered to any particular user is identical to the content delivered to every other user).
Clearly, broadcast content need not be defined by its temporal aspect (i.e., it is not time-based because different users may receive the same broadcast content at different times), or its delivery medium (e.g., delivery over radio waves, delivery over physical cables, or delivery via physical manufacturing and distribution outlets such as being packaged onto a DVD or sold in a store). Rather, it is defined by the fact that all users receive the same content. More specifically, broadcast content has the following characteristics:                1. It is static. The content will always be the same no matter what context it is viewed in, who is watching the content, or in what way the content is affecting the user. The content will not change. For example, when a user reads a book multiple times, the same words always appear on the page.        2. It is efficient. Because the content is static, no alternate story lines, auxiliary content, or the like need be produced. The static quality of broadcast content translates into an efficiency in the ways in which the content can be produced and distributed. For example, the efficiency aspect of a film translates into the ability to package it for mass-market sale via DVD.        3. It is passive. The user is not required to perform any action in order to change the content (nor can the content accommodate any change based on the actions of a user). The user is solely a passive observer of the story or experience as it unfolds. It is a passive or “lean back” viewing or listening experience for the user.        4. There is a user expectation that the viewing or listening experience will be passive. By experiencing the content in this manner, users are able to derive all of the benefits that such content has to offer. For instance, viewers of broadcast television do not intend or expect to be able to influence the outcome of a television show while watching it.        5. It is unidirectional. All interactions with users happen in a single direction from the content broadcast point to the user. Although there have been experiments (such as call-in shows) where users en-masse can change the outcome of a show (e.g., voting a contestant off of a show by dialing a phone number), any change is universally propagated to all users regardless of their participation in the communication process. Therefore, since the content is not affected by an individual user's interactions, the content is still delivered unidirectionally.        6. It is distributed via a single channel at a time. This means that the way to consume the content is via a single mechanism, such as transmission via television broadcast or downloading of the primary content via the Internet. Although users may be able to download additional, supplemental content after consuming the primary content (e.g., by visiting a Web site after viewing the movie to get an extended interview or director's cut), these actions (e.g., consuming the primary content on one device and consuming supplemental content on another) are all controlled by the user rather than by a centralized distribution system, and as such, would be more appropriately described as the consumption of separate content. In other words, the content is not being broadcast via multiple channels, but rather is only being consumed by the user via multiple channels.        
Of course, broadcast content is not the only form of content available to users. At the opposite end of the rich media content spectrum are video games. As video games continue to grow in sophistication, they have, in and of themselves, become an expressive, story-telling medium. A video game has the following characteristics:                1. It is dynamic. The outcome of the game is largely dependent on the actions of the user. If the user performs one series of actions, the game will likely take an entirely different form than if the user chose another set of actions.        2. It is inefficient. Because multiple outcomes are possible, each possible outcome is created even when these outcomes are completely exclusive of one other.        3. It is active. The user performs actions in order for the game to proceed. In some types of games, an inactive user will result in the game not advancing, and in other types of games, the game will end altogether if the user is inactive. In this sense, the user is an essential part of the story.        4. There is a user expectation that the viewing or listening experience will be active. Users engage in a video game primarily to accomplish a goal. This may be a social goal (e.g., to defeat a friend), a personal goal (e.g., to surpass a personal best or to accomplish a mission intrinsic to the game itself), or some other type of goal.        5. It is bidirectional. Users provide input to the game and the game provides input to the user. In some games, this is done with a game controller (a special piece of hardware that allows the user to press buttons that are mapped to actions in the game), while in other games, the input can be provided to the game through a camera, microphone, or other more natural device. In other words, the bidirectionality of the game enables the game to be active.        6. It can be distributed via multiple channels at a time. Especially with the advent of social games and the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (“MMORPG”) game genre, users can receive signals about game play when they are not actively playing a game. These signals can include a text message when the user is attacked or an email when the user's “tribe” starts a “campaign.” Some games can use multiple channels in game play. One example of using multiple channels in a game may include forcing a user to solve a puzzle on a Web site to unlock a level in a non-Web-based game.        